(a) Field of Invention
The invention relates to a status display system for monitoring aircraft subsystems and parameters, for detecting faults therein, and for indicating the existence of these faults. More specifically, the invention relates to such a system which indicates the faults in order of the priority of the faults, and which uses a non-dedicated display.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
In aircraft employing the above types of systems, it is common to employ dedicated fault annunciators. That is, each possible fault has a corresponding illuminated display indicator. Therefore, in an aircraft, the area required to display all possible faults is determined by the number of such possible faults. With high performance aircraft, the amount of display area required is substantial, but the amount of display area available is minimal. To minimize the required panel space, legends are kept to a minimum size so that at times they are difficult to read. In addition, the large number of indicators makes it difficult for the pilot to effectively monitor all the faults as he can only absorb so much information at any time.
In addition. if further faults are to be monitored, inconvenient and difficult physical changes have to be made to the cockpit instrument panel.
In the operation of a cockpit panel, when several fault messages appear, the pilot has to determine very quickly which message is most critical and should therefore be acted on immediately. During emergency conditions, such as when multiple subsystems fail, this adds considerably to the pilot's workload.
Modern day electronics has generated new systems applications that are finding their way into modern cockpits. Each system has its own controls/display unit to interface with the pilot. These require valuable cockpit instrument panel space and provide an even heavier burden for the pilot.
The dedicated fault annunciator system is particularly wasteful of cockpit instrument panel space with regards to each indicator when there is no message to be displayed on that indicator which, under normal conditions, is the situation.
In othe fields, systems have been devised for the purpose of monitoring several different parameters and providing a single display for the indication of faults therein. Such systems are illustrated in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,231,025, Turner, Jr., Oct. 28, 1980 and 4,250,484, Parke, Feb. 10, 1981. U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,642, Green et al, May 30, 1978, teaches such a system which also places a priority for display on the faults detected. However, the systems taught in the above-mentioned patents are relatively unsophisticated and are therefore not suitable for high performance aircraft wherein a large number of parameters must be monitored and all of these parameters must be arranged in order of priority so that the highest priority fault is first displayed on a non-dedicated display.